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Carnival Of Souls (1962): a fine psychological horror. I can’t say I loved it, but it was just good enough to be worth it. and the Criterion blu-ray is full of good stuff.

Matinee (1993): damn that movie was fun. I actually think I saw it years ago, I seem to remember the second floor crashing. Also, this is another near perfect blu-ray release from Shout.

Walk The Line (2005): not a perfect movie by any means, but as a biopic, it’s fine.

A Prairie Home Companion (2006): the last movie Robert Altman made. Definitely not his best, but a great movie nonetheless. Good songs, good actors, fun all around.

The Runaways (2010): another music biopic. At first I was not sure about this one because I didn’t see that many good reviews, but I thought it was great. Though I’m not a fan of Kristen Stewart (sorry F’ers, I know many of you love her), she didn’t bother me that much.

The Wackness (2008): sorry Robyn Buckley, but I thought this was bad. I was so bored. The main actor, Josh Peck, is the worst and Ben Kingsley is barely alive. The story is a standard teenager coming of age and Olivia Thirlby is pure delight, which are points for it, but Peck’s performance killed it for me. Robyn’s article was about the music, and it was good.

The Trial (1962): one of Welles best movie that nobody talk about. Though, to be fair, unless it’s Citizen Kane nobody talk about his body of work. It creepy, it’s weird, you’ll get lost easy if you don’t pay attention. But it’s beautifully shot and cleverer than it appears to be at first glance. I had to import my blu-ray from Japan to get a decent copy.

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018): I mean… what can I say? Let down of the century? Maybe. I was so stoked when I saw the teaser during the Super Bowl, but then I watched it. It has a bunch of very good actors in it, and yet I found them all doing so bad. Probably because they had barely anything to work with. Life (2017) was better than this, and that’s saying a lot.

i'm asking about Don Quijote because a friend have an old DVD and the story of the production and editing is weird. and the reviews are not that great. so is it just a curiosity or is there genuinely something there?

What I know about Don Quijote is that it was yet another Welles production that was filmed over a long period of time. I am not sure he even had a chance to finished it. Considering Welles' talent, there are likely some worthwhile parts of it.

F for Fake is fantastic. I’m a huge Welles fan, and that is some of his most interesting work in my opinion. I recommend the Criterion disc, as it has a fantastic documentary about his later life and career that is also a must-watch.

Mr. Wonderful (1993) - A decent romantic comedy directed by a pre-"The English Patient" Anthony Minghella with some fine chemistry between Matt Dillon and Annabella Sciorra, as well as Mary-Louise Parker and William Hurt serving as romantic false leads for our main couple.

Still going through the Oscar movies that are finally coming out here. This week: The Shape of Water, Molly's Game, A Fantastic Woman and The Florida Project. That was me ranking them in order of preference. The Shape of Water is fantastic! I want it to win all the Oscars.

Still not out in Finland: Coco, Three Billboards, Phantom Thread, I Tonya & Lady Bird. Have to wait until March for those last two.

I am enjoying Blade Runner 2049 on bluray, but the special features are somewhat underwhelming: About forty minutes of production features, three previously released prologue videos, and no commentary track. :-\

Work is really eating into my energy for extracurricular activities recently. I have only watched one film during the week.

CURSE OF CHUCKY (2013)- I had a smile on my face watching this. It is a film that knows what it is and delivers. I was entertained. Not being familiar with the Child's Play franchise since the first two films came out, I cannot say how it fits in with the other films.

Took a week vacation and spent part of it watching all the Puppet Master movies. I'd seen a few of them here and there and have been a bit dismissive of the series. Having watched all the Hellraiser sequels during Scary Movie Month I've speculated that as a whole it's probably more enjoyable than watching all the Puppet Master films but I had to know for sure. I haven't fully decided yet which is better but I think Hellraiser has the lower lows. I was pleasantly surprised though how much I liked the first three Puppet Master movies this time around though.

Since I already had the Full Moon trial subscription for the week, I also watched all the Blind Dead movies since they're on there. I'd seen half of them before (the first one and Night of the Seagulls). They're good but my biggest complaint is that some of the death scenes could be edited down slightly when it's stuff like the Templars very slowly dragging someone away while they're screaming. There's one scene like that in Ghost Galleon that I swear goes on for about 5 minutes.

Just watched The Ritual (Netflix) last night because I'm a big Rafe Spall fan. This would make for a good addition to Scary Movie Month. Slight spoiler: I liked how the movie began with the fake-out of "this story is really a metaphor for moving on" and slowly became a "survive a night in the scary woods" tale.

Started off the week rewatching MOONSTRUCK in honor of John Mahoney. One of my favorites and Mahoney is so goddamn charming along with everyone else.

Followed that up with JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO. It's delightful, Hanks and Meg Ryan are great, and I loved all of the Ossie Davis stuff too. A great humanist movie. Thank you to Patrick for championing this movie, without that I don't know if I ever would have given it a chance. John Patrick Shanley has such a unique style, it's a shame he wasn't given the chance to do more stuff like MOONSTRUCK and this.

AUTO FOCUS: Worth it for Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe, who are both compelling, but I don't think I ever need to see it again. I was reading some reviews on it and A.O. Scott said that "it sneaks up on you like a low-grade fever," which is about as accurate an assessment I can think of.

Continued catching up on 70s stuff I haven't seen with SORCERER. I appreciated how little dialogue there is, 'cause between Friedkin's super gritty visuals and the Tangerine Dream score, words are overrated. Also, a great trailer that definitely makes you want to watch it right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BDbIzovuos

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW: I responded pretty well to it, even though it sagged a little after Sam the Lion died. A scene at the end involving Timothy Bottoms, some farmers, and a cattle truck is pretty affecting, I think.

Then, last night with the roommates, I saw SICARIO for the first time. Having been mostly indifferent to ARRIVAL and BR 2049, I enjoyed it a whole lot and would consider it my favorite of Villenueve's movies. He is such a thuddingly literal director that he should stick to tight, visually interesting thrillers that require no nuance. SICARIO is perfect for him.

Hopefully, if I knock out some homework this afternoon, a double feature of THE PETRIFIED FOREST and TROUBLE IN PARADISE tonight awaits.

Not surprising. The trailer was laughable. It's a shame, I had a lot of hope for the Spierig Brothers after Daybreakers and Predestination. But after Jigsaw (the absolute worst movie i saw in 2017), and what I've heard about Winchester....not looking good.

Granted I know very little about Tupac Shakur yet I'm often drawn to films about the hip-hop community (Get Rich or Die Tryin' being a personal favourite...) And whilst the actual film is not that good and of course how true it is is left open to debate what sold me was certainly the performances especially Demetrius Shipp Jr. who plays Tupac and not only looks like the late rapper but gives a great performance... The biggest issue in director Benny Boom who's direction is overall rather flat, though the film does pick up steam especially when we go into the Death Row Records portion of the film! What I will say is that though a controversial figure there is no denying Tupac was a talented artist and achieved more by 25 than most people do in a lifetime!

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, dir. Sam Liu (2018)

Have to say this is one of the best DC animations I have seen for quite some time, certainly several steps up from the disappointment of The Killing Joke adaptation! Based on a one-shot by Brian Augustyn and Mike "Hellboy" Mignola ad re-imagining a Victorian era Batman and Gotham and taking on the infamous Jack the Ripper, it works both as an action piece, there are two stand out set pieces AND as a really good whodunnit... Excellent animation, voice cast and some nice Easter eggs along the way make this a tight, dark and very entertaining yarn!

Watched Tragedy Girls on VOD last night. Pretty good. Perhaps a bit light on content for it's running time, but the characters are a lot of fun, and the kill scenes are very clever. Definitely worth the $6 rental.

About that photo: I tried watching The Big Easy a couple times and couldn't get past Dennis Quaid's stupid grin. A few months later I saw an old picture of him and realized that's just how he looked. 8-D

Eyes wide shut. Saw it on opening weekend almost 20 years ago as an 18 year old. Was a massive Kubrick fan from 2001; full metal jacket; Barry Lyndon and the shining. Cannot even remember what I thought of it back then but remember the hype. Watching it now, all these years later, I think it’s a masterpiece. Good god 90’s Cruise was great (save for far and away and a good bit of days of thunder).

Hey, for everyone not reading this, I love these weekend open threads. It's just my weekends are super busy, and when Tuesday comes around, I don't bother posting, because no one will read. I managed to take the day off for fthismoviefest. Nearly all movies for me (except for UHF, but it's been many years). Can't wait.

They're not as good as the first, but enjoyable enough. The 2nd is kind of a rehash of the first, but with more CGI effects. The 3rd one you get to see people outside of the Cube who are controlling it, and the story takes a few twists and turns.

If you liked the first, then they are worthwhile watching. Unfortunately, Cube 2 isn't available on any streaming service in Canada. I borrowed the DVD from a friend.